Why We Need a Days Gone 2
Days Gone is an action-adventure game from Bend Studio. It is one of the numerous open-world games that have been released in recent times. Furthermore, while Days Gone doesn’t call its zombies by the name of zombies, it is very much another example of zombie media. Speaking of which, Days Gone is one of those games that got panned by the critics but nonetheless managed to sell well. The exact extent to which it sold well is unclear. However, the relevant number is measured in the single-digit millions, which is quite respectable even considering the huge size of the modern video game market. As such, it is natural for people to wonder about the chances of us seeing a Days Gone 2, though current indications are that those chances are either nonexistent or so close to being nonexistent that there is no meaningful difference.
Should There Be a Days Gone 2?
Often-times, there is no simple answer to the question of whether a particular video game should have a sequel or not. There are some video games that are terrible in either every single respect or almost every single respect. For them, the answer is a simple and straightforward “No.” In contrast, there are other video games that are wonderful in either every single respect or almost every single respect, so for those, the answer is a simple and straightforward “Yes.” Unfortunately, most video games fall somewhere between these two extremes even if they lean in one direction rather than the other. Something that makes it much more difficult for interested individuals to determine whether they deserve a sequel or not.
This is particularly true because different people can have very different considerations. To name an example, one person might be hyper-focused on whether a hypothetical project will be profitable or not. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they will automatically approve of anything that is expected to make a profit because there is an important split between economic profit and accounting profit, which can be distinguished from one another by whether they consider the opportunities that will be passed up in the process or not. Still, said individual would have a very simple and straightforward decision-making process because it would be all about whether the sequel would be the most profitable of the hypothetical projects under consideration or not.
Chances are good that most people wouldn’t be hyper-focused on profitability to this extent. This is particularly true if they are video game consumers rather than video game makers because that means that profitability wouldn’t be a critical concern for them. For them, they are likelier to focus on whether the video game offered an enjoyable experience as well as whether the sequel to the video game would offer an enjoyable experience. Once again, this is something that can see enormous variation from person to person. Some people care a great deal about narrative; some people like having a good narrative but not enough for it to be considered either a deal-maker or a deal-breaker; and some people just don’t care about narrative at all. Similar things can be said about premise, visuals, mechanics, and so on and so forth because people can be very complicated like that.
Thinking about whether the sequel will be enjoyable or not is even messier for a couple of major reasons that are connected to one another. First, predictions of the future are always tied up with people’s hopes and fears. Both of which have a very easy time running wild because they are so inherently emotional. Second, it is hard for predictions of the future to be more moored by objective fact than assessments of the present when that objective fact hasn’t happened yet. The most capable of interested individuals might be able to guess the general gist of things. Even so, there is no way for them to predict the specific details. Combined, these things make it a real challenge to come up with something meaningful for said evaluations.
Regardless, there is reason to think that Days Gone deserves a Days Gone 2. Yes, the original game has a number of serious issues. For example, some of its mechanics are very clunky, so much so that they dragged down even the best of what the game had to offer. Similarly, it belongs to not one but two kinds of games that are already oversaturated, with one being action-adventure games in an open world setting and the other being zombie games. In spite of that, Days Gone managed to sell multiple millions of copies, which suggests that it managed to connect with a lot of people on some level.
One could make an argument that the people who bought the game didn’t have a clear idea of what they were going to get, meaning that those millions of sales don’t necessarily support this line of thought. However, that rings hollow because that kind of thing has a much harder time happening in the present than in the past. After all, most people have a keen awareness that advertising is advertising, which is as applicable to games as it is to everything else. Furthermore, video game consumers tend to have a healthy suspicion of video game reviews. On top of that, their connectedness to video sites as well as other online resources means that it is very easy for them to get a very good look at what to expect. In other words, it seems reasonable to speculate that most people had a decent idea of what to expect from Days Gone but winded up enjoying it to some extent anyways. As such, a Days Gone 2 seems like a decent idea, particularly since Bend Studio’s relative inexperience when making the first game presumably means that it would be able to do a better job with making a second game.
Will There Be a Days Gone 2?
Having said that, the chances of a Days Gone 2 being made are either nonexistent or next-to-nonexistent. This is because a pitch was made to Sony, which was rejected in the end. Apparently, there were those who were supportive of the idea of a Days Gone 2. A list that even included the ex-Sony head Shawn Layden, who had gone to some lengths for the hypothetical project. However, when he went, the chances for a Days Gone 2 went as well. Besides that, there were some other pitches made in the communications between Bend Studio and Sony. For example, Bend Studio suggested an open-world game in the Resistance setting, which failed to get much interest from Sony because the previous installment Resistance 3 hadn’t performed very well. Similarly, Sony suggested a reboot of Syphon Filter, which met with a lack of enthusiasm on the part of Bend Studio because there were no ideas for how to go about doing so. For that matter, it was unclear how serious that suggestion even was because it could have been something meant to occupy the studio for a time before Sony came up with a more serious proposal.
Very recently, there has been something of a kerfuffle because of how Days Gone was supposedly treated. Essentially, the former Bend Studio director Jeff Ross is irritated that higher-ups at the studio treated the game as a disappointment even though he claims that it managed to sell more than 8 million copies on the original platform as well as more than 1 million copies on Steam, thus making for a combined total of 9 to 10 million sales. He made sure to compare this with Ghost of Tsushima, which he says was celebrated even though it sold a similar number of copies. Something that might be connected to how Days Gone was not well-received by the critics while Ghost of Tsushima was.
In any case, there is also some uncertainty about whether Ross’s numbers are correct or not. This is because he didn’t get the numbers direct from a source such as, say, Sony that would know the exact number of copies that were sold. Instead, Ross came up with some very approximate numbers on his own by consulting a game website that offered information about trophies as well as certain in-house resources. The issue is that this wouldn’t produce an accurate set of numbers because this process would include rentals, used copies, and PS Plus versions, thus inflating the number of copies that were sold. Still, those are nowhere near enough to make Days Gone anything other than a commercial success. Instead, they would just make it somewhat less of a success than what Ross claimed.
Regardless, interested individuals might be curious about what Days Gone 2 would have looked like. If so, they should know that the pitch included a desire for a co-op mode. Apparently, Bend Studio had already wanted to implement a co-op mode in the original game but wasn’t able to do so for whatever reason. As a result, they decided to include it in the pitch for the sequel, which to be fair, makes sense because fighting zombies in cooperation with team-mates is a tried-and-true formula for zombie games. After all, the idea of a small team of survivors fending off massive zombie hordes is iconic for zombie media as a whole rather than just zombie games in particular.
What Else Should You Know about Days Gone?
Summed up, there is a good case to be made for a Days Gone 2. However, it isn’t happening at this point in time even though it was a commercial success. Theoretically, a Days Gone 2 could happen at some point down the road. Even so, it wouldn’t be the same as the project that was already pitched to Sony before being rejected. Moving on, if people are curious about the question of whether Days Gone deserves a sequel or not, they should check it out for themselves so that they can form a well-grounded opinion of their own. As mentioned earlier, it is an action-adventure game in an open world setting. However, it is important to note that a virus has transformed a huge portion of humanity into zombies, with the result that modern society has collapsed under both the loss of so many people and the remaining survivors coming under assault by zombies. Of course, humans remain humans. Due to this, while zombies are the single most dangerous threat in the setting, interested individuals can also expect to have to fight human opponents. It is interesting to note that interested individuals won’t be creating a character of their own. Instead, they will be playing Deacon St. John, a one-time outlaw biker in a world in which said label has lost of its meaning. Before the start of the game, said individual was separated from his wife Sarah Whitaker while fleeing with her as well as a fellow biker named William Gray. Unfortunately, while they managed to find a helicopter, said vehicle had two remaining seats, with the result that Sarah left first while Deacon remained behind to care for his wounded friend William with a promise to follow after her soon. He is devastated when the camp where Sarah was evacuated is overrun by zombies. However, Deacon finds new hope when he comes upon a researcher named James O’Brian who was evacuated with Sarah on the same helicopter because said individual reveals that the helicopter had been diverted to a different camp midway through the flight. Something that kicks the story into high motion. Mechanics-wise, interested individuals can expect a lot of common features in these games. For example, they can expect to take on both human and ex-human enemies using a wide range of weapons. Similarly, there is a fair amount of emphasis on stealth, which is necessary for preventing the player from being overwhelmed. Still, Days Gone does manage to stand out in some respects. One would be the emphasis on Deacon’s bike, which serves as his storage as well as his main means of transportation. Another would be the zombie hordes, which can make for some very exciting encounters when the player at least has all of the tools that they need to overcome them.
